Effects of stocking density and environmental enrichment on behavior and fecal corticosteroid levels of pigs under commercial farm conditions

Cornale, Paolo; Macchi, Elisabetta; Miretti, Silvia; Renna, Manuela; Lussiana, Carola; Perona, Giovanni Emilio; Mimosi, Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2015.05.002

Cited by 62 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Authors such asBeattie, O´Connell, & Moss (2000);Beattie, Walker, & Sneddon (1995); andBolhuis, Schouten, Schrama, & Wiegant (2005) have already reported that environmental enrichment reduces the percentage of time pigs are inactive and increases the amount of time they spend performing exploratory behavior. Although it is argued that bedding material is better as enrichment material than a point-source object (Van deWeerd & Day, 2009), such as the wooden stick used in the present study,Cornale, Macchi, et al (2015) still reported an increase in exploratory behavior when pieces of wood are used as enrichment. In addition, the meta-analysis carried out byAverós, Brossard, et al (2010) reported that point-source objects also promote the expression of exploratory and rooting behavior when no bedding material is provided.…”

contrasting

confidence: 54%

Does the location of enrichment material affect behavior and dirtiness in growing female pigs?

Dalmau

Areal

Machado

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science

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The objective of this study was to investigate if female growing pigs spend similar amounts of time exploring a wooden stick as they do exploring enrichment material regardless of its proximity to the feeder. Forty-eight pigs aged 18 to 26 weeks allocated to 16 pens with three pigs per pen were studied. Fifty percent of the pens had a wooden stick beside the feeder, and the rest had a similar stick opposite to the feeder. Two observers assessed the pigs by means of scan and focal sampling. The pigs spent more time (p < .0001) exploring the wood during the first week than during the rest of the study (10.9% vs 3.6%). The pigs with the wood close to the feeder spent less (p = .0001) time resting (29.9%) and more (p < .0001) time exploring (6.3%) the wood than did pigs with the wood opposite to the feeder (32.4% and 2.5%, respectively). In conclusion, a wooden stick placed close to the feeder was associated with more exploratory behaviorcompared with a similar stick placed opposite to the feeder.

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confidence: 54%

Does the location of enrichment material affect behavior and dirtiness in growing female pigs?

Dalmau

Areal

Machado

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science

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“…In the past, rearing densities in intensive food animal production were primarily optimised for maximal growth and/or productivity, and hence economic benefit [ 2 ]. Today, however, there is increasing consideration of animal rearing density on behaviour [ 3 , 4 ], stress levels [ 5 , 6 ], immune levels [ 5 , 7 ], and ultimately welfare [ 3 , 6 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptomic response to parasite infection in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) depends on rearing density

et al. 2018

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BackgroundCaptive animal populations, be it for food production or conservation programmes, are often maintained at densities far beyond those in natural environments, which can have profound effects on behaviour, immune and stress levels, and ultimately welfare. How such alterations impact transcriptional responses to pathogen infection is a ‘different kettle of fish’ and remains poorly understood. Here, we assessed survival and gene expression profiles of infected fish reared at two different densities to elucidate potential functional genomic mechanisms for density-related differences in disease susceptibility.ResultsUtilising a whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq) approach, we demonstrate that rearing density in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) significantly impacts susceptibility to the oomycete Saprolegnia parasitica, via altered transcriptional infection responses. Tilapia held at low densities have increased expression of genes related to stress, likely due to increased aggressive interactions. When challenged with Saprolegnia, low-density fish exhibit altered expression of inflammatory gene responses and enhanced levels of adaptive immune gene suppression compared to fish reared at higher density, resulting in significantly increased mortality rates. In addition, Saprolegnia infection substantially perturbs expression of circadian clock genes, with fish reared at low-density having higher levels of molecular clock dysregulation.ConclusionsOur results reveal the wide-scale impact of stocking density on transcriptional responses to infection and highlight the need to incorporate circadian biology into our understanding of disease dynamics in managed animals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-5098-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Overall, the FGM concentration 1-7 days after parturition in control group was higher than the treatment group. Control group may have been exposed to other handling or environmental stressors [ 23 ], but since both groups were treated the same, it could be that the AS sounds were soothing to the treated pigs. Thus, it can be concluded that neither the AS sound at 70 decibels nor the higher frequency of piglet suckling in the treatment group resulted in additional stress for the sows.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Artificial Piglet Suckling Sounds on Behavior and Performance of Piglets and Adrenal Responses of Sows

Khonmee

Wathirunwong

Yano

et al. 2018

Veterinary Medicine International

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Operation of the farrowing house is essential to the productivity of a swine farm, requiring not only good management but also knowledge of the behavior of sows and piglets. Stress can negatively affect production in farm animals and could be a factor in production indexes. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of artificial sucking sounds on the behavior of piglets and fecal glucocorticoid (FGM) concentrations of sows. A total of 30 sows were divided into two groups: a treatment group (15 sows) was exposed to artificial sucking sounds and a control group (15 sows) was not. Both groups received the same management; the two open-house system locations were separated by a distance of about 270 meters. The study had three key objectives: to compare farrowing indexes and to observe the sucking behavior of piglets using CCTV cameras. Fecal samples were collected daily for 21 days from the period after parturition to weaning to assess adrenal activity. The treatment group had a significantly higher average number of times piglets came to a sow's udder, and sows had a shorter onset time for the first piglet to come to the sow's udder than the control group (both P<0.05). The patterns and levels of FGM between the two groups were not different (both P<0.05), but the treatment group had better farrowing indexes than the control group (P>0.05), particularly for litter weight gain and percent preweaning mortality. In addition, the weaning to first service interval of the treatment group was shorter than the control group (P<0.05). This indicates that the artificial suckling sound probably has no adverse effect on adrenal responses of pig; however, it improves production indexes of postparturition sows.

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Effects of stocking density and environmental enrichment on behavior and fecal corticosteroid levels of pigs under commercial farm conditions

Cited by 62 publications

References 35 publications

Does the location of enrichment material affect behavior and dirtiness in growing female pigs?

Does the location of enrichment material affect behavior and dirtiness in growing female pigs?

Transcriptomic response to parasite infection in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) depends on rearing density

Effect of Artificial Piglet Suckling Sounds on Behavior and Performance of Piglets and Adrenal Responses of Sows

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